Anglo-Dutch multinational Unilever agreed Tuesday to combine its food division with spice maker McCormick. The cash-and-stock deal would create a company with roughly $20 billion in annual revenue and a pantry’s worth of brands, including French’s mustard, Hellmann’s mayonnaise, Old Bay seasoning and Knorr soup mixes.

Investors are not biting. Shares in Unilever fell 7.3% in London, and McCormick sank 6.3% in New York, erasing billions in market value. Here’s why investors were left with a bad taste in their mouths.

End of an Era

There’s been a lot for big food conglomerates to digest lately. Less affluent customers have curbed spending and switched to store brands after years of inflationary price hikes turned grocery shopping into a ritual slap in the face for many. And with the proliferation of GLP-1 weight-loss drugs, which Cornell researchers found result in an average 5.3% decline in household grocery spending, many people are simply buying less food. That leaves companies trying to eke out a more profitable foothold in this fickle environment.

In February, PepsiCo said it was cutting snack prices after earlier hikes triggered a backlash. Kraft Heinz pulled the plug on a planned breakup after sales deteriorated so much that the spinoff’s investor appeal waned. Others successfully closed acquisitions, like Mars’ purchase of Kellanova and Ferrero’s deal for WK Kellogg. And still others, like Campbell’s, General Mills and JM Smucker, have divested brands. For its part, Unilever spun off its ice cream business.

Tuesday’s deal would see the firm “sharpening” into a $45 billion “pure play” in global beauty, wellness and personal and home care, a noteworthy development considering Unilever has been in the food business for almost a century. But some investors worry McCormick is biting off more than it can chew:

• While McCormick will pay Unilever $15.7 billion in cash and $29.1 billion in stock equivalent for the Anglo-Dutch firm’s food arm, Unilever and its shareholders will receive 65% of the combined company.
• The deal is structured as a tax-friendly Reverse Morris Trust, which essentially allows a spinoff that’s being acquired in theory to own the majority of the new entity. Barclays estimated the value of Unilever’s food business, which is dominated by Hellmann’s and Knorr, to be $32.3 billion to $35.8 billion, more than double McCormick’s $14.2 billion market capitalization.

Take Your Pick: Analysts at RBC, left “unimpressed,” wrote: “What we really can’t get our heads round is why is Unilever disposing of a business dominated by two brands, of which it owned 100%, for a minimal control premium and leaving its shareholders with a 55% shareholding in a sprawling food business.” On the other hand, Deutsche Bank analysts said the new McCormick could have “a path to potentially transformative scale” and give the spice maker added punch via the condiment market, a rare bright spot for food conglomerates.

Jamie Dimon is taking the American Dream public.

On Tuesday, JPMorgan Chase announced a venture to expand economic opportunity through investments in communities across the country. The “American Dream Initiative” will kick off with increased access to capital, advice or tools for 10 million small businesses, up from the 7 million the bank serves today, according to a statement. Other goals include greater housing access and affordability through increased housing supply and home-ownership opportunities as well as increased support for thousands of schools, hospitals and nonprofits.

The move comes at a time when white picket fences, manicured green lawns and a middle-class lifestyle seem beyond the grasp of many Americans. Nearly 70% of people say the American Dream no longer holds true or never did, according to a poll last year from The Wall Street Journal and NORC.

“The American Dream is alive, but it’s slipping out of reach for too many people and for future generations,” said Dimon, chairman and CEO of JPMorganChase.

Backing America’s Backbone

Despite some pessimism, Americans are still looking to get ahead: 61% of adults say owning a business is part of the American Dream, and 69% of Gen Z adults say the same, according to a Wells Fargo survey. Most Gen Z-ers (74%) and more than half (58%) of millennials who don’t own businesses want to someday.

JPMorgan, which also launched a $1.5 trillion plan to invest in industries critical to economic security in October, isn’t the only company looking to support small business owners:

• Last week, Apple launched Apple Business, an all-in-one platform that includes built-in mobile device management and lets customers set up their business email, calendar and directory services using their own domain name. It also helps reach local customers.
• Meta is launching Meta Small Business to support entrepreneurship and increase AI adoption, Axios reported last week.

Roasting Regulation: When discussing the initiative on Fox News, Dimon said the government should focus on good regulation, not necessarily more, and that failing to do so has crippled the country’s ability to build. “I tell people, get 10 or 20 small businesses, take them to lunch and ask them what they have to go through with federal, state, local regulations, audits, rules, OSHA, workers’ comp, insurance, litigation and you’ll say, ‘How can they even survive?’” Dimon said. “Big companies can afford that better than small companies.”

Achieving unicorn status, once rare, is now as easy as riding a bike … provided that bike has an electric-assist motor.

On Tuesday, e-bike startup and Rivian spinoff Also scored unicorn status with a $1 billion valuation in a new $200 million funding round, as the world grows weary of diesel dependency. But that’s not all: It also makes last-mile autonomous delivery drones, and on Tuesday, it announced a new partnership to help DoorDash grow its fleet of robot couriers.

Electric Pedal to the Metal

The billion-dollar valuation comes before Also bikes have officially hit the streets. In October, the company unveiled its flagship TM-B e-bike; it confirmed to The Daily Upside on Tuesday that it plans on beginning deliveries in “late spring.” Online reviewers have raved about early test rides, and the company has found myriad ways to innovate on the 200-year-old two-wheel technology. Notable features include a touchscreen display, a regenerative braking system for battery charging and top pedal-assist speeds of 28 miles per hour. The fully packed edition retails at $4,500, putting it in the lower end of premium e-bikes.

While the industry has spent the last year in a Chapter 11 shredder, a new “War Economy” at the pump is changing the math:

• Sales of e-bikes in 2025 reached $826 million, down from a peak in 2022 but up from 2023 and 2024. The downturn has nevertheless hurt the industry: Rad Power Bikes, which had a peak valuation of $1.65 billion in 2021, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in December. Other industry heavyweights-turned-flops, such as EBC and Propella, went out of business.
• On the other hand, online searches for electric bicycles have surged to all-time highs in the past month as the war in Iran sparks a wave of energy anxiety, according to Google Trends data.

Special Delivery: Also isn’t putting all its eggs in the e-bike handlebar basket, however. In October, the company also unveiled a four-wheel “Quad” version for commercial delivery drivers and is developing autonomous delivery vehicles that can navigate bike lanes, shoulders and curbsides as part of the DoorDash partnership.